In the past week or so, the outright mean, un-Christian-like actions of two bishops, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and Bishop Paul Bootkoski of Metuchen have been all over the news. If you have time, you should write or call both of them and ask them to apologize for their actions that have harmed innocent people. First, there was Cardinal O’Malley firing a janitor, a pastor, a school principal and a second-grade teacher because the janitor used the same bathroom that an elementary school student used and no one reported the fact that no crime and nothing inappropriate happened to...

The highest ranking woman in the Anglican communion has said climate denial is a “blind” and immoral position which rejects God’s gift of knowledge. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal church and one of the most powerful women in Christianity, said that climate change was a moral imperative akin to that of the civil rights movement. She said it was already a threat to the livelihoods and survival of people in the developing world.

Must Bishops Be the Husband of One Wife? Tim Staples May 5, 2013 | 0 comments Share on twitter Share on facebook Share on email Share on print Share on gmail More Sharing Services As both a guest and, at times, a host on our radio broadcast, Catholic Answers Live, I have spoken on many different topics over the years. Mostly, I do the “Open Forum Q&A” on Tuesdays, but my favorite hours have been our “Open Forum for Non-Catholics,” when we take calls only from non-Catholics or from people who are in the process of coming into full communion...

Rev. Libby Lane In a way, it was sort of like when the cleric officiating at a wedding asks, “If any of you has reasons why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace.” Usually, no one objects, except in movies. The ceremony that took place in England’s Yorkminster Monday will be memorable for the historic nature of it, to be sure, but also because one man did not hold his peace. The Anglican Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, gave the congregation one last chance to sign off on the consecration of Rev. Libby...

A man has interrupted the consecration of the Church of England's first female bishop. The unidentified man said that "it was not in the Bible", when Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu asked the congregation if it was their will that Mrs Lane should be ordained. The man asked to speak to Dr Sentamu about the "absolute impediment" before walking off. VIDEO ON LINK

In an email to the clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, the Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton has identified the driver of the car involved in the fatal bicycle crash on Roland Avenue yesterday as Bishop Heather Elizabeth Cook, ordained in September to serve as Bishop Suffragan, the No. 2 spot in the diocese. “I am distressed to announce that Bishop Heather E. Cook was involved in a traffic accident Saturday afternoon, Dec. 27, that resulted in the death of bicyclist Thomas Palermo, 41,” Bishop Sutton wrote today, noting that Cook did not sustain any injuries. Bishop Sutton also...

The Bishop of Antwerp, Johan Bonny advocates an ecclesiastical recognition of homosexual relationships. The dogma that the Catholic Church can only accept male-female relationships, he put in question in an interview with this newspaper. "There should be a diversity of recognition forms." With his plea Bonny, is one of the first church leaders who attacks the absolute monopoly of the male-female marriage. "We have to look inside the church for a formal recognition of the relationality which is also present in many gay couples. As a variety of legal frameworks in society exist for partners, he wants to instate a...

As noted here: "The Bishop of Antwerp, Johan Bonny advocates an ecclesiastical recognition of homosexual relationships. The dogma that the Catholic Church can only accept male-female relationships, he put in question in an interview with this newspaper. "There should be a diversity of recognition forms." With his plea Bonny, is one of the first church leaders who attacks the absolute monopoly of the male-female marriage. "We have to look inside the church for a formal recognition of the relationality which is also present in many gay couples. As a variety of legal frameworks in society exist for partners, he wants...

The Church of England has named its first female bishop, just four weeks after elevating women to the role was approved. Rev Libby Lane, who has spent much of her career working in the North East has been announced the new Bishop of Stockport, an assistant in the Chester Diocese. The historic move comes a month after the General Synod in York approved legislation to elevate women to the position and 20 years after the first women were ordained as priests.

A Mormon bishop in Los Angeles is under fire for his assertion that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is unworthy to enter the faith's temples because of his support for Democratic Party positions. Mark Peredes' blog, titled "Good Riddance to Harry Reid, the Mormon Senate Leader," has drawn criticism from the church and Mormon Democrats. [SNIP] Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman on Saturday released a letter from a Mormon Democrat in Las Vegas to Paredes. "Our comment to this is to show you one of many comments Sen. Reid has received from his friends," Orthman said. The letter was written by...

‘At this very critical moment, there is a strong sense that the church is like a ship without a rudder,’ said a prominent Catholic conservative last week. No big deal, you might think. Opponents of Pope Francis have been casting doubt on his leadership abilities for months — and especially since October’s Vatican Synod on the Family, at which liberal cardinals pre-emptively announced a softening of the church’s line on homosexuality and second marriages, only to have their proposals torn up by their colleagues.

John Carroll: Americaâ€™s Bishop George J. GallowayWhen President James Madison asked for and received, by a narrow margin, a declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812, there was one man in the new republic who knew exactly what to do: John â€śJackieâ€ť Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore, an aging shepherd of a small and widely diverse flock, in a fledgling democracy about to enter into war against the greatest sea power on earth, got on his knees and dedicated America to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.This year, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Baltimore. For the...

Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski was installed as the ninth spiritual shepherd of the Diocese of Springfield, Mass., during a solemn Aug. 12 Mass at the Cathedral of St. Michael. In his homily, he highlighted the responsibility of a shepherd to reach out and bring back lost sheep. Citing Pope Francis, Bishop Rozanski said all are called to welcome the alienated “by our compassion, joy and witness to the love of God at work in our world.” “As your bishop,” the 56-year-old Baltimore native said, “I am keenly aware of the need to reach out to those who have stopped practicing...

House report could doom Frank Gehry design After more than a decade of planning and $44 million spent, a proposed memorial for President Dwight D. Eisenhower may never be built. A House Committee on Natural Resources report published last week revealed the extent of the money wasted on the already controversial project. Construction for the Eisenhower memorial has not begun and the proposed design has not been approved, but the Eisenhower Commission, which was established as a staff of 12 in 1999, has already spent tens of millions of dollars on the project. Much of that money has gone to...

Lansing, Mich., Jun 30, 2014 / 03:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has named Monsignor Steven J. Raica of the Diocese of Lansing to become the next bishop of Gaylord, Mich. â€śIn these days, as I prepare myself to serve the People of God in the northern part of Michiganâ€™s Lower Peninsula as a new bishop, I offer my praise and gratitude to the Lord Jesus whose presence in my life has enabled me to experience an abundance of life,â€ť Bishop-designate Raica said June 27. â€śMy gratitude also goes to Pope Francis for entrusting me with this honor and...

Life is hard. And it just keeps on coming, ready or not. Somewhere inside me, I guess I thought that life in “retirement” would be more peaceful, easier somehow. But I am also not naďve enough to believe it for long. Recently, my partner and husband of 25-plus years and I decided to get divorced. While the details of our situation will remain appropriately private, I am seeking to be as open and honest in the midst of this decision as I have been in other dramatic moments of my life—coming out in 1986, falling in love, and accepting the...

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop, who became a symbol for gay rights far beyond the church while deeply dividing the world's Anglicans, plans to divorce his husband. Bishop Gene Robinson announced the end of his marriage to Mark Andrew in an email sent to the Diocese of New Hampshire, where he served for nine years before retiring in 2012. Robinson would not disclose details about the end of their 25-year relationship but wrote Sunday in The Daily Beast he owed a debt to Andrew "for standing by me through the challenges of the last decade."

There are bishops and there are bishops. Indeed, the Diocese of Little Rock had four of them before a priest named Andrew McDonald came out of Savannah, Ga., to become the fifth, and Lord willing there will be many others to come after. Yet when people in these parts referred to the bishop, there was no doubt whom they meant. For the bishop would spend 28 years here in Arkansas, and many had known no other. Yes, there were bishops before the Very Rev. Andrew J. McDonald and there would be other bishops after him, but there was none like...

Next Thursday, April 10, a key event will take place at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany: the ordination of Bishop-elect Edward B. Scharfenberger as the new Bishop of Albany. The event will be broadcast live on EWTN and Time Warner Cable News and on the internet via the Diocese's website, www.rcda.org (see sidebar). A brief guide to the long and complex liturgy can help us to understand what happens during an ordination Mass, and also help us to reflect on the role of a bishop. All the gestures, actions and words in any liturgy - whether...

Lincoln, Neb., Mar 24, 2014 / 08:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop James Conley of Lincoln hopes his new pastoral letter on the sacrificial “language of love” and the disruptive immorality of contraception will be received “with open hearts and open minds.” “My hope is that people, Catholic couples especially, and also Catholic physicians and pharmacists, will be willing to look at this issue again,” he told CNA March 20. “The Language of Love” is Bishop Conley’s pastoral letter on the sacrificial nature of love and on contraception, officially promulgated March 25 -- the feast of the Annunciation, when the Church...

Last October Dr. Thomas Ogletree (above), a clergyman in the United Methodist Church (UMC), performed the wedding ceremony for his gay son. UMC pastors are not supposed to marry gay couples, family members or otherwise. They’re instead supposed to believe what their Book of Discipline (which is to the UMC what, say, the Tax Code Book is to the IRS) tells them to believe, which is that “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” ....................................................... So guess what happened this morning instead of the trial of Thomas Ogletree? The UMC bishop overseeing the trial dropped all charges against the pastor. And...

“I call on every man in the Diocese of Arlington to search his heart and renew his commitment to purity. I call on every husband and father to renew his sacred commitment to his wife and children.” - Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde ARLINGTON, VA, March 7, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The growth of pornography use, particularly on the internet, is “a matter of utmost urgency for every son and father today,” Bishop Paul Loverde of the Catholic diocese of Arlington, Virginia said in a letter to his flock released this week. Titled “Bought with a Price: Every Man’s Duty to Protect...

From Miami, Florida to Seattle, Washingtonâ€“ Every single Roman Catholic bishop in the United States has condemned in public the Obamacare HHS mandate â€” all 180 bishops who lead dioceses in the U.S. have spoken. This is a simply incredible, unified, universal Catholic witness on this critical issue of religious freedom.(To those wondering about my methodology, it is now negative instead of positive â€” I am no longer able to find a single Roman Catholic bishop who has NOT spoken out against the mandate publicly. It is also my presumption that this conclusion applies to all Eastern Rite and Sui...

After reverencing the altar the celebrant goes to the chair. Now perhaps a word or two on the chair is called for. Some one may wonder why the priest has a chair of some prominence. Why does he not simply sit among the faithful and come forward as necessary? Here again, there is a history to know. In the ancient world, the Chair was a symbol of authority and office. We still have something of this today in the concept of the Judge’s Bench. The chair was also a symbol in the ancient world of teaching authority. It is...

In the readings for daily Mass the past few days we have been reviewing the faith journey of St. Paul who describes his personal history and also his authority in the second chapter of the Letter to the Galatians. The story is interesting for three reasons. It can help correct notions that some have of PaulÂ’s rapid assent to the office of apostle (Bishop) and affirm that he was not a lone-ranger apostle. He was a man who was formed in the community of the Church for some length of time, and did not go on Mission until he was...

In this case, it was religious moderation — not extremism or volatile rhetoric — that grabbed headlines. It was February, and Barack Obama was delivering his speech on the mandate requiring the health care plans of Catholic organizations to cover contraceptives, traditionally opposed by Catholic doctrine. Blase Cupich, bishop for the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, was taking notes. He’d been tasked by America magazine, the 103-yearold national publication of the Jesuits, to write an essay about the Catholic reaction to the president’s decision. Like other Catholic bishops, Cupich was opposed to the mandate and worried it would restrict religious freedom....

Bishop Mel Talbert Retired Bishop Melvin Talbert conducted a ceremony celebrating the marriage of a same-gender couple in Center Point, Ala. A retired bishop in the United Methodist Church (UMC) conducted a same-sex marriage celebration in Cedar Point, Ala., on Oct. 26. On Friday, bishops of the UMC publicly rebuked the retired bishop, Melvin Talbert. The UMC Council of Bishops statement calls for charges to be filed against Talbert for both "conducting a ceremony to celebrate the marriage of a same gender couple" and "undermining the ministry of a colleague." Conducting such ceremonies is expressly prohibited in the church's governing...

Freak becomes a bishop. That’s the quick and easy storyline describing the path Father Andrew Cozzens took to becoming the next auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.But, here’s the strange part — the person who called him this name was a doctor. And, he pinned this label on Father Cozzens, called Drew throughout his childhood, without even seeing him.In fact, Father Cozzens was still in his mother’s womb.This takes some explaining, and so it was that his parents, Jack, 75, and Judy, 69, took a good chunk of time on a recent afternoon recalling the circumstances...

SPRINGFIELD, IL, October 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Homosexual activists canceled a planned protest inside a cathedral this week after Bishop Thomas Paprocki issued a statement saying that asking the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede on behalf of gay “marriage” legislation was a sacrilege he would not tolerate on church property. About a week ago, the Rainbow Sash Movement announced its intentions to silently pray the rosary inside Immaculate Conception Cathedral on Tuesday afternoon, 45 minutes before evening Mass. Their intention? That the state legislature would pass Senate Bill 10, titled the “Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act,” legalizing same-sex “marriage”...

In a fiery speech to social conservatives Friday, Virginia lieutenant governor candidate E.W. Jackson blasted the media for questioning his positions on social issues. Jackson, a bishop, said that when he first got into the race he was asked by reporters about controversial statements he has made concerning Planned Parenthood (which he once compared to the Ku Klux Klan) and gay marriage. “Well, I want to go on record here,” Jackson said, speaking at the Values Voter Summit. “I didn’t apologize then, I don’t apologize now and I will never apologize for standing up for the truth.”

How did Elizabeth Eaton pull off the year's biggest surprise in Pittsburgh, not counting the Pirates? The unheralded bishop of Northeastern Ohio beat out the two-term incumbent, Mark Hanson, by better than 2-1 for the office of presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, despite trailing him by a 19-1 margin on the first (nominating) ballot. Let us count the ways. These Mainline Lutherans turned out to be literalists. The convention theme, as veteran attendee Eric Shafer pointed out last week, was "Always Being Made New." Thus many delegates decided to uphold Isaiah 43:19 and "do a new...

CANTERBURY, England — Irish Catholic politicians and Parliament members who voted for a controversial law that allows abortion under certain circumstances will not be excommunicated or denied Communion, the future primate of Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, said.

PROVIDENCE, RI, August 14, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Diocese of Providence has revealed that he changed his voting registration from the Democratic to the Republican Party after what he said was an "awful" 2012 Democratic Convention, reports WPRI. At the 2012 Convention the party strongly endorsed abortion on demand and same-sex “marriage.” Addressing a meeting of the Rhode Island Young Republicans, the bishop said, “I just said I can’t be associated structurally with that group, in terms of abortion and NARAL and Planned Parenthood, and [the] same-sex marriage agenda and cultural destruction I saw going on....

Moldavian bishop Marcellus of Beltsy and Faleshty (Russian Orthodox Church) called on the Moldavian MPs to revoke the bill on equal rights. As the Moldavian media reports his statement, in the opposite case he’ll propose excommunication of the MPs. He said he had granted the MPs one-month term for the decision, “hoping that it’ll be enough to understand there’re other moral values apart from those which the EU is pressing”. The law adopted on May, 25 2012, has split the Moldavian society for two fractions. The country has adopted it since the EU had put it as a condition to...

As I noted in a previous post (see here), the Diocese of Worcester has some sort of animus against men who feel called to the priesthood but who accept, promote and defend the Church's Magisterial teaching. There really is no denying this. Candidates such as Jonathan Joseph Slavinskas are entirely welcome within the diocese (see here), but I am not permitted to even apply as part of a discernment process. This is most unfortunate. Dr. Germain Grisez explains that, "Since the ordained priesthood and diaconate provide the necessary ministries of the word and sacraments to the whole Church, every member...

MANILA, Philippines (CNS) -- A Chinese priest who recently arrived in the Philippines said that, this year, he did not make his usual May trek up Sheshan hill outside Shanghai, where thousands of pilgrims offer special prayers to Mary, Help of Christians. Speaking to Catholic News Service on the condition of anonymity, the priest said that, until he left China, Shanghai priests -- who currently have no bishop -- were still discussing how to proceed with the month's largest pilgrimage, May 24. Shanghai Bishop Jin Luxian died April 27; his Vatican-approved successor, Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, is under house arrest....

Tuesday, May 07, 2013Bishop Robert McManus arrested Pope John Paul II, in his book Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way, emphasizes that, "Just as a father shapes the faith of his children primarily by his example of prayer and religious fervor, so also a bishop inspires his faithful by his behavior. That is why the author of the First Letter of Peter begs that bishops be 'a living example to the flock' (1 Peter 5:3)...A bishop is called to personal holiness in a particular way so that the holiness of the Church community entrusted to his care may increase...

Damascus (AsiaNews) - There is no sign that two Orthodox bishops kidnapped four days ago near Aleppo have been released, this despite numerous reports about their liberation. "Nothing; there is nothing; only unreliable reports," a source, anonymous for security reasons, told AsiaNews. "We can talk about their release only when the two bishops are in front of us and can talk to us." Mgr Yohanna Ibrahim, bishop of the Syriac Orthodox Diocese of Aleppo, and Mgr Boulos Yaziji, archbishop of the Greek Orthodox diocese of the same city, were abducted on Monday in Kafr Dael, 10 km from Aleppo, on...

The Mormon bishop who used a samurai sword to defend a neighbor lady being attacked by a stalker is just an irresistible story. So many contemporary memes collide. First the facts, from Fox News: Kent Hendrix woke up Tuesday to his teenage son pounding on his bedroom door and telling him somebody was being mugged in front of their house. The 47-year-old father of six rushed out the door and grabbed the weapon closest to him -- a 29-inch high carbon steel Samurai sword. Hendrix, a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said it was the...

In a previous post, I refuted Bishop Robert McManus' argument for rescinding the invitation of Mr. Robert Spencer to speak at this year's Catholic Men's Conference which was held in Worcester. Specifically, Bishop McManus asserted that his decision was based, "..solely on the concern that Mr. Spencer's talk would impact negatively on the Church's increasingly constructive dialogue with Muslims." And now we are suffering the aftermath of a heinous terrorist attack in Boston perpetrated by Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was radicalized by militant Islam and who possessed jihadist videos on his YouTube channel, and his younger brother Dzhokhar, who was more...

Washington Episcopal Bishop Marianne Budde, writing in her blog on the subject of Resurrection, opined that if someone were to discover a tomb with Jesus' remains in it, the entire enterprise would not come crashing down. VOL: Actually, Bishop it would. Our faith would be in vain and we would be of all men (and women) most miserable. St. Paul writes in I Cor. 15, "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day...

PATERSON, N.J., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A New Jersey man was gunned down as he waited for his girlfriend outside a funeral home where she was attending a homicide victim's wake, police said. Conrad Bishop, 25, of West New York, died Thursday night outside the Martinez Funeral Home in Paterson, The Record of Hackensack reported. Manny Martinez, the funeral director, said he saw Bishop lying on the street in a pool of blood with money blowing around him.

Bishop Alexander K. Sample of Marquette. File: Photo/CNA. Portland, Ore., Jan 29, 2013 / 10:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop Alexander K. Sample of Marquette, Mich., to shepherd the archbishop of Portland, Ore. In a Jan. 29 statement, Archbishop-designate Sample noted his â€śexcitement and joy at taking up this new challenge that God has placed before me.â€ť â€śI have always tried to be obedient to the will of God and to accept whatever the Church asks of me to be Godâ€™s will,â€ť he said Tuesday. â€śIt is in this spirit that I have said 'yes'...

And so it came to pass that the laity in the Church of England rose up and declared they would not have women bishops to reign over them. The vote was admittedly only six votes, but six votes are six votes. The issue cannot be revisited until a new Synod is elected in 2015. Liberals and progressives along with homosexuals and lesbians are in "tears" and "agony" over this defeat. So is the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the soon to be Archbishop Justin Welby who both spoke up in favor of the measure. It was a bitter pill...

The daughter of a Latter Day Saints bishop and author of a book on Mitt Romney’s Mormonism says that she has concerns about a Romney presidency. Tricia Erickson, who is now a professing Christian after being involved in the LDS establishment for 21 years, stated in an article this week entitled The Obamney Twins that while she cannot support Barack Obama, she is unable to vote for Mitt Romney either. “To me, as a conservative, a Republican and a Christian, I cannot justify a vote for either one of the Obamney baby-killing, annihilators of the family, government healthcare mandated to...

The Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs has thrown down the guantlet to Vice President Joe Biden -- don't come here and expect to partake in Holy Communion. It seems Bishop Michael Sheridan, the person in charge of Catholics in Colorado Springs, doesn't approve of Biden's stance on abortion. The Bishop, following church doctrine, is opposed to abortion. Biden, meanwhile, has said he doesn't support the practice, but doesn't believe it should be illegal. In 2007 Sheridan wrote: "Any Catholic politicians who advocate for abortion, for illicit stem cell research or for any form of euthanasia ipso facto place themselves outside...

Bishop Thomas John Paprocki from Springfield, Illinois, is getting attention after making some strongly-worded comments about those Americans who opt to vote for President Barack Obama in November. In a column and video that was posted by Catholic Times, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Springfield, Paprocki targeted portions of the Democratic platform that “explicitly endorse intrinsic evils.” He also warned that supporting certain politicians could place peoples’ “eternal salvation…in jeopardy.” While he noted that it’s not his job to to tell people who do vote for, the faith leader said that he has a duty to speak out...

BOSTON -- The former University of Alabama professor sentenced to life in prison last week in a shooting rampage that killed three of her colleagues wants to go on trial in the 1986 death of her brother in Massachusetts.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A Harvard-educated biologist was sentenced to life in prison without parole Monday after being convicted of going on a shooting rampage during a faculty meeting at an Alabama university, killing three colleagues and wounding three others in 2010. The jury deliberated for about 20 minutes before convicting Amy Bishop. The former professor at the University of Alabama in Hunstville showed no reaction as the verdict was read. She did not speak in court, but her attorney said she has often expressed great remorse to the victims and their families.